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Why product management is open source's fatal flaw
1 week, 5 days ago
"More importantly, FOSS offers feature sets and mixes that often aren't available in commercial products because the market is too small, commercial companies don't understand it, or the problems aren't profitable enough to solve .... " -
Coaching the next generation of FOSS developers
1 month, 1 week ago
"Each year it seems that there are more and more grumblings about how commercial Open Source conferences are moving further and further away from Free Software and Open Source communities..."
Linux.com : Collaboration
Using a wiki for FOSS application documentation
For a lot of programmers, writing an application is fun, but writing its manual is not. Adding new features, refining the product, and responding to users' input are all more rewarding than writing instructions on how to use the software. However, good documentation is necessary to have happy, informed users who can contribute meaningfully to future development. A few months ago, Gilbert Ashley, the author of src2pkg (Slackware's "magic package maker") invited me and two other people to help him manage the user documentation for his program. The process we used to create the src2pkg wiki may be a useful example for other free and open source software (FOSS) application developers.
Book review: The power of group sharing
Clay Shirky's book on what information technology is doing to our world, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, has important things to say to anyone interested in open source software (OSS). His thoughts on the evolving effects of the technological revolution we are all living in make for a fun way to spend a few hours.
Ask Linux.com: Redistributing a distro, running non-native apps, and forum guidelines
In addition to answering questions on the Linux.com forums, in the past week we have been having some useful discussions as well. Here's a peek at some of them, along with a few forum guidelines you can follow to help keep the forums clean and get you speedier responses.
Luminotes: No-frills wiki notebook
Imagine an application that combines the features of a wiki and a Web-based notebook. It may sound like an unusual mix, but Luminotes wiki notebook is living proof that this combination works rather well.
Commentary: the Linux Foundation and the future of Linux
I came away from the second annual Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit with mixed feelings. I mean, it's hard not to support the group that pays Linus Torvalds to spend his time continuing to lead the poster-boy project for free and open source software. But at the same time, those golden chains are my biggest concern about the Linux Foundation.
Linux Foundation Director Jim Zemlin talks to Weekly Wire about the group's goals and plans (video)
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The Linux Foundation is just over a year old. This week, here in Austin, it held its second annual Collboration Summit, a "by invitation" event for about 300 core Linux developers and corporate sponsors. In this video, Linux Foundation director Jim Zemlin talks about the group's current activities and future goals.
A hint of what's happening at Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (video)
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Guest commentator Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of Ziff Davis Enterprise tells what, in his opinion, is important about the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit going on right now in Austin, Texas.
Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 3
Linux has succeeded as a product only because the community that supports it has organised itself systematically to create, share, test, reject, and develop ideas in a way that flouts conventional wisdom. Successful We-Think projects are based on five key principles that were all present in Linux. Earlier I introduced three principles; here are the final two.
Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 2
Linux has succeeded as a product only because the community that supports it has organised itself systematically to create, share, test, reject, and develop ideas in a way that flouts conventional wisdom. Successful We-Think projects are based on five key principles that were all present in Linux. Yesterday I talked about Core and Contribute. Today, it's Connect.
Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 1
Linux has succeeded as a product only because the community that supports it has organised itself systematically to create, share, test, reject, and develop ideas in a way that flouts conventional wisdom. Successful We-Think projects are based on five key principles that were all present in Linux. Here are the first two.
